Christian Political Engagement in Divisive Times
Most of the party primaries are over, and races are set for the federal election on November 3. As election season moves into full swing and political contests will once again take center stage, it seems like a good time to step back and offer a few initial thoughts about ways we can offer a faithful Christian witness in our political engagement.
Politics is Messy
Political participation provides a way—not the only way, but an important one nonetheless—for Christians to live out the great commandments to love the Lord our God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength and to love our neighbors as ourselves. Given the possibilities to serve the common good, Christians should participate in government, educate themselves on political issues, and advocate for policies they think best.
At the same time, we need to acknowledge that politics is messy, and government is fallen and broken (just like everything in the world, including us). Political solutions are necessarily imperfect and, at best, temporarily achieving partial goals. Ultimately, public policy involves a lot of trial and error, attempting one fix to a problem, seeing how well it works (or doesn’t work), and then trying something new. Sometimes government programs can help; other times solutions may be best found with families, churches, and community organizations.
Given the messiness and complexity of addressing problems politically, it makes sense that Christians, like any other group, will disagree on many political issues.
Making Room for Charitable Disagreement
The Bible isn’t an instruction manual on public policy. Instead, it teaches principles and narrates paradigms that apply to all of life, including politics. Although most Christians will agree on core biblical commitments and on the end goals of public policy, we should not expect Christians to be of one mind about what specific proposals are best to pursue or which policies deserve priority.
Consider some examples. There is widespread agreement that poverty is bad, a strong economy is good, and peace is preferable to war. But even in areas of widespread agreement like these, views diverge significantly on how to achieve shared goals and what tradeoffs are acceptable to reach political solutions.
Christians have an important role to play in advocating for policies and programs that they believe will help care for their neighbors and serve the common good. But they need to acknowledge room for disagreement and express their respective views respectfully.
Modeling a Better Way
When Christians get involved in politics, they can lose sight of their ultimate goal to love God and neighbor, focusing instead on their own self interests. At their worst, Christian political movements become triumphalist and power-seeking; their leaders are arrogant, contentious, and condescending. At their best, however, Christian political movements can offer a powerful witness of Christ’s upside-down kingdom: modeling humility, grace, and repentance in the public square.
Almost every aspect of the current political climate runs counter to biblical values. Politicians and commentators tend to exaggerate, distort the facts, and even outright lie to make political points or entertain an audience. The tone of most political communication is boastful and arrogant; the goal is often to tear down and attack opponents. Social media and the blogosphere abound with comments full of vitriol, spite, and hate.
Christians are far from immune. Some prominent activists on the left and right speak and act as if they know the mind of God on arcane political matters, explicitly or implicitly communicating that those who disagree with them are on the side of evil. So much of what happens in the political realm seems to fit the Apostle Paul’s description of the works of the flesh in Galatians 5, a list that includes hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions, and envy.
Christians have an opportunity to model a different approach. In politics, as in all spheres of life, we should seek to honor God in word and deed. Instead of mirroring the values of the world, Christians are called to demonstrate the fruit of the Spirit: love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. We rarely see such characteristics modeled in contemporary politics as they run counter to the expected “rules of the game.”
Consider the radical dimensions of God’s love outlined in I Corinthians 13: “Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.” A robust, Christ-centered politics is an extension of this powerful love; it shifts the focus from self to others, pointing the way to God’s truth with humility and kindness.
Christians can choose humility over arrogance, disagree but remain gracious, and speak the truth in love. Following such principles is not a formula for worldly success, but it is a way to be faithful witnesses for Christ.
